Jamahal Hill and Alex Pereira appeared to nearly come to blows at the UFC Performance Institute in December 2024.
The viral clip showed Hill confronting Pereira before the Brazilian threw sparring gloves towards him.
A year and a half later, the former light-heavyweight champion has now set the record straight about what really happened.
Jamahal Hill says Alex Pereira gym confrontation was planned
Hill now claims the entire scene was staged to build interest in a rematch with Pereira.
That changes the context of a clip many fans saw as real tension after Pereira’s first-round knockout win over Hill at UFC 300.
The former light-heavyweight champion told Home of Fight that he and the Brazilian star were never genuinely enemies.
“Me and him are cool, bro. There’s never been any beef, there’s never been any animosity. We’ve never had to be separated or any of those things,” he began by saying.
Hill then explained why the UFC PI moment happened.
“There was the video… We planned that. That was for us to try to hype up a fight between the two of us, before the Magomed [Ankalaev]. I was trying to jump the line over Magomed.”
At the time, it seemed like Hill was still chasing revenge after losing his title shot against Pereira. Now, he shockingly says it was simply promotion.
It also shows how quickly UFC narratives can be manufactured around real competitive stakes.
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